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B_arco II

During one week, we had the opportunity to deepen and expand the principles of the body mapping concept, focusing especially on the relationship between the inner and outer space. Therefore we explored different locations of B_arco and as well it’s surroundings in order to find actions that melt the qualities and properties from the in- and outside.

One of the text’s that supported this process was from Zygmunt Bauman’s book „Confiança e Medo na Cidade“ (Trust and Fear in the City). We used many of his text passages as starting point for the development of a collaborative performance which was realized on the last day at the "Largo da Batata“ - an important urban traffic point and former bus station where the immigrants of the poorer regions of Brazil used to meet and hang out. Today the Largo da Batata is in a restoration process.

One definition of body mapping, according to Nathalie Fari and my practical experience during the workshop, is the mapping of the body trough an observation, the use and creation of a relationship with that body, with the other and the space, the places where it falls, occupies, inhabits and passes by.

The urban space interacts with the performer creating a vital and immediate dialogue, thus becoming a co-author or even dare to say, a vector of dramaturgy, sign and signifier. It points out the way, creates awareness and speaks to the performer. Has the space a function? How it can change the score of the action starting from the architecture of the place, the circulation of the people, the obstacles encountered and the local history and geography?

Flavio Amado, actor and director

An experience exploited in different structural phases crystallizes the socialized action in time and space, transforming subjectivities in concepts that shape the formation of the "body mapping". Individually we create and recognize the issues that make up the "collective body" in: crossing site and compass; movement and non-movement; entrance and exit; intimacy and overexposure; public and private; refuge and insecurity; intention and risk; daydream counted and balance threshold.